Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category

Sounds great doesn’t it?

Orders to U.S. factories posted the biggest increase in four months in January, led by a surge in demand for commercial aircraft. The increase was another sign that manufacturing is helping to support the economic recovery.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that factory orders rose 1.7 percent in January, slightly below the 1.8 percent gain economists had expected. It was the best showing since a 1.8 percent advance in September.

Oh wait. There was a 118% gain in orders for commercial airplanes. It’s all making sense now.

The post office is renewing its drive to drop Saturday delivery — and plans a rate increase — in an effort to fend off a projected $7 billion loss this year.

Without drastic action the agency could face a cumulative loss of $238 billion over 10 years, Postmaster General John Potter said in releasing a series of consultant reports on agency operations and its outlook.

We don’t see our mail carrier on Saturday’s that much anyway, I thought they had already cancelled Saturday delivery.

The government now says that China did not lose its place in December as the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt.

The Treasury Department said that under annual benchmark revisions released Friday, China’s holdings of U.S. Treasury securities stood at $894.8 billion at the end of December, keeping it in first place ahead of Japan.

On Feb. 16, the government reported data that showed China had been surpassed by Japan. However, the government said in the new report that those figures did not account for purchases by Chinese investors in such places as Britain.

If you’re going to issue a report, shouldn’t you check all your facts before issuing the report? Why is it that the government is always “revising numbers”?

After nearly 50 years of hammering competitors with discounts, Wal-Mart is getting a taste of its own medicine.

The world’s largest retailer has seen sales at its U.S. Walmart stores fall for the first time, as price-cutting competitors lure away bargain-hunters. Department stores and dollar stores are muscling in on the company’s discount turf.

And executives do not expect much improvement in the current quarter, forecasting sales at stores open at least a year will range from down 1 percent to up 1 percent.

Yet, their profit still rose 22 percent. They’re complaining their profits are down, but they actually went up. Cry me a frickin’ river.

Analysts expected payrolls to rise by 15,000 with unemployment holding at 10%, yet there was a loss of 20,000 jobs nd the rate fell to 9.7%.

The U.S. economy lost 20,000 jobs in January, the Labor Departmentsaid Friday, defying expectations for a slim gain. But the jobless rateunexpectedly fell to 9.7% from 10% in December.

Wall Street expected nonfarm payrolls to rise by 15,000 with unemployment holding at 10%.

Stocks opened up, sold off, then staged a big rally late to end higher. The Dow rose 0.1%, the S&P 500 0.3% and the Nasdaq 0.7%.

Someone is fudging numbers. You do the math.

It seems the storm is subsiding, even for just a bit.

Fewer U.S. workers filed new claims for jobless benefits for a third straight week last week and productivity rose at a stronger-than-expected pace in the first quarter, data showed on Thursday, supporting budding hope that the recession was losing force.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 4,000 to 621,000 in the week ended May 30, the Labor Department said. The week covered the Memorial Day holiday, which could have had an impact on the data.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Citigroup Inc’s (C.N) run of ignominy has now come to this: losing its coveted spot in the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) to a former unit.Dow Jones Indexes on Monday said the property and casualty insurer Travelers Cos (TRV.N) will replace Citigroup in its flagship 30-stock index of blue-chip stocks, effective June 8.Citigroup shares have traded below $5 since mid-January, and bottomed at 97 cents on March 5, after huge losses led to a series of federal bailouts. Taxpayers could end up owning 34 percent of what was once the world’s largest bank by market value.

Imagine what these companies, and our economy, might look like if politicians like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama didn’t start mortgaging our kids future to “rescue” everyone.

Ohhh. I didn’t realize Swine Flu would have such a positive impact…

Oil prices fell over 2 percent toward $50 a barrel on Monday, paring some of the previous session’s near 4 percent gain, on fears of a global flu pandemic after an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico.

The impending release of U.S. bank “stress test” results, a Federal Reserve meeting and a flood of earnings due later this week also heightened investor caution.

The ride keeps on going.

The ups.

AT&T Inc (T.N) posted a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profit due to strong growth in its nascent video and high-speed Internet service, sending shares up 2 percent.

And the downs.

Morgan Stanley (MS.N) posted its second straight quarterly loss on Wednesday and slashed its dividend as real estate investment losses and a debt-related charge wiped out gains from its trading businesses.

This sounds like the perfect setup for the government’s ultimate plan.

A surge in troubled loans overshadowed better-than-expected earnings at Bank of America Corp, and the largest U.S. bank expects the credit situation to worsen, driving its shares down 17 percent.

While first-quarter profit more than doubled, the results are unlikely to end calls by investors for Kenneth Lewis to step down as chief executive or give up the post of chairman. The bank’s purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co on January 1 led to an emergency federal bailout two weeks later.

And that plan is…

Obama administration officials have determined they can avoid asking Congress for more bank bailout funds by converting existing loans to the largest U.S. banks into common stock, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

President Barack Obama’s top economic advisers now say such a conversion would let them stretch what is left of the $700 billion financial bailout fund further than they had expected a few months ago, the paper said, citing administration officials it did not identify.

Converting the loans to the 19 biggest U.S. banks into common shares would turn the government aid into available capital and give the government a large equity stake in return, the newspaper said.

First it was baby steps, but now it seems were in a full out sprint toward nationalization.